Commercial leases and business rate referrals by local authorities

The Bona Vacantia Division (BVD) receive various referrals from local authorities some of which we can deal with and others which we cannot

You can read more about the background to bona vacantia and how it arises in our Bona vacantia dissolved companies BVC1 document. This guidance will also tell you whether the Treasury Solicitor is the correct person to send your referral to.

What BVD can deal with?

We can handle requests to disclaim commercial leases that belonged to dissolved companies.
To enable us to deal with referrals for disclaimer as quickly as possible please remember to send us all the information set out in our Bona vacantia dissolved companies BVC3 guidelines.

We can also accept overpayments of business rates that are due to a dissolved company because any money due to a company at the time it is dissolved becomes bona vacantia and belongs to the Crown.